this is why demanding flawless representation from every piece of media, and trying to police who writes what based on identity is a huge fucking mess
source
The publisher is now threatening to sue her btw,
Checked on this, the company issued a formal apology where they admitted they assumed the author was straight because she “presented herself as straight”
She literally told them she was bisexual in the query she submitted
I know, that’s what makes this even worse.
That publishing company is such bullshit lmaooo
Their “apology” is even more disgusting. They double down on the biphobia.
“No other authors will receive any constructive feedback from us” lmao what a baby
“We put you gays and lesbians on the purity pedestal and, when you really think about it, this “bisexual” (Whatever that means) is really to blame for making us realize you people fuck.That’s why we were wrong.“
“She isn’t posting pics of herself making out with every person of every gender on Instagram, so she is obviously just a straight looking for attention :/”
This song has been old for a while and it keeps getting older.
Along with its accompaniment, “the slutty bisexual”
This saga really is an ever-growing snowball of unprofessional behavior and not knowing when to quit:
Assuming that straight people’s writings about queer characters are bad representation by default, which has terrible implications for representational media
Stalking this author’s social media to ascertain if she was queer or not
Deciding that, despite being openly bi to the publisher and social media, she is “presenting as straight” by having a husband and so must be lying about being bi
Rather than offering actual constructive criticism of her work, dismissing it outright based on representation alone (even later admitting that they had no issue with her work aside from her perceived sexuality)
When confronted, doubling down and putting the blame on the author for somehow being dishonest about her sexuality and for rightfully complaining about their unprofessional behavior, which is libel, apparently
Calling the author’s character “slutty”
Trying to guilt-trip the author by presenting the situation as a personal insult rather than a professional complaint, including the “if you’re going to be that way I guess I’ll just never offer constructive criticism ever again” rebuttal even though 1. That is literally their job as a publisher and 2. Their criticism wasn’t constructive in the first place
Defending their actions as support of the LGBT+ community while refusing to acknowledge that this type of gatekeeping only hurts the community
Accusing the author of being petty in one of the most passive-aggressively petty letters I’ve ever read, which was also characterized by grammatical errors that don’t help their case as a reputable publisher
This seems like the kind of situation where, long ago, someone had good intentions that went downhill when they decided to only engage with only the most unproblematic representation available.
Such an attitude negates the work of anyone doing their best who is writing about an experience that is not their own, or even representing their own experience in a way that makes someone uncomfortable. This is further evidenced by the publisher’s about page, which states that they will not publish books that include “explicit/toxic romance” and “any works that depict rape or have extreme trigger warnings,” while not specifying what those triggers are. That is their prerogative as a publisher, of course, but purging anything problematic from your catalogue can often do more harm than good, as authors use these subjects to work through their own problems and help others do so as well. That’s why trigger warnings exist in the first place.
It’s noble to want to hold up LGBT+ authors as much as possible, but this type of gatekeeping is not the way to do it. If you are critiquing someone’s writing and have an issue with its content, point out what has made you uncomfortable and ask for clarification on why they chose to write it that way, rather than jumping to conclusions about their intentions.
My favorite (“"favorite”“) part of this (that I haven’t seen touched on yet - the biphobia is pretty lovely too) is their prohibition on “explicit/toxic romance.” As, like, one implicitly connected line item.
BIG OOF. This just in - explicit sex is toxic! I’m sure such an implication has no grounding whatsoever in decades of homophobia and the characterization of queer desire as inherently predatory! And won’t negatively affect anyone’s conception of their own sexual feelings, in ways that can be severely damaging to their sex lives and their sense of self-worth! asdfasfg
It’s perfectly fine, obviously, to want to run a publishing house (or a rec list, or a Big Bang) that focuses on fluffy, wholesome, feel-good romances, without explicit sex. That’s an excellent genre of story, and many people want to write and/or read them, especially with queer characters. But say it like that, don’t go “just leave out the Icky Stuff.” For god’s sake.
tl;dr - Let The Queers Fuck 2021
Note the bit about how they said they saw online complaints that her previous work was ‘barely’ representation and ‘misrepresented’ as LGBTQ+, which made her not qualified to write this more explicitly queer book.
Meaning they were looking to publish queer stuff for woke points, observed she’d already gotten negativity for not doing rep Good Enough (probably including allegations she was An Outsider who Didn’t Understand), and determined she wouldn’t be useful to them in that way and could even hurt them with the benchmark crowd.
Which is to say, internet backlash against queer content for falling short of some imaginary bar of perfection (like this stuff wasn’t even accused of any actual offensive qualities it just wasn’t ‘enough’ and was therefore proclaimed a failure) does in fact actively suppress the future supply of queer content, because corporations are listening.
It’s the time of year when we all remember Hurn Publications, because fuck you Hurn, threatening legal action against a chick for airing your dirty laundry?
She’s posting “slander”. I stg. 🙄
